this is my third year riding every day in the month of april. and like the third child in the family's photo album--there aren't as many pictures this time. some of the pictures will also be cropped weird as they are twitter screenshots. (bonus: pre april, i got in a bunch of rides. march was warm~ish and really dry. it seemed like i rode a lot more than normal. of course the weather was bound to change !)
day one of #30daysofbiking found me looping pam's trail with a saw in my frame bag, my mission was to cut out a blowdown too heavy for her to move.
day two, i took a 'classic' picture of the nishiki in front of the swix thermometer. this winter, the bike was completely rebuilt. it rides as good as it looks. amazingly, the low temp of april has continued to be april 2nd. 2020 made it into the 20s, but '19 and '21 were both in the mid-teens.
day three was a saturday and after hiking up on moose mountain with pam in the morning, billy and i rode down to 'koby's way'. there were a few highwater hazards to negotiate, complete with some substantial beaver activity.
day four i rode up and over town hill behind our house. i was thinking with the snow mostly gone, especially where the sun hits, there would be good enough traction. i was wrong. dry leaves are wicked slippery. this is one of those cropped pics--go to @kobeest for the full view.
day five, six, seven, eight, and nine were all work days, but i ended up riding to every school in our five town district, at least twice. throw in the sau office at least three or four times and you get a sense of a pedaling IT support person.
clockwise starting at the top left: high school, just outside my office; canaan elementary, that's mrs evan's room she had both sawyer and sadie around thirty years ago; enfield village school, at the playground entrance; indian river school, the jr high directly behind the high school.
the week was mostly sunny and warm. the 'quackers', wood frogs, were out quacking on sunday and monday, and the 'peepers', tree frogs, started peeping toward the end of the week. the picture below is a wet sight across rt 4 in front of the high school where i always hear the first frogs of spring. the snapper is crawling out of that wet area onto the rail trail to lay eggs in a gravelly nest.
day ten and eleven share a tweet as i went up town hill twice over the weekend. my goal was to find a thin sapling and lash it high in the wolf pine at the height of land. the point being with a colorful 'flag' attached i should be able to spot it from surrounding high peaks. while the wind had me swaying a good ten feet side to side at the top of the pine, the fast ride down hill was still the 'high' point.
days twelve through fourteen were commuting days riding to all of the schools again. on thursday the 15th, i pedaled into hanover for my teeth cleaning. it was drizzly but i didn't get soaked until coming home from stopping to sweep at the bike shop. i figured i was out and about and friday--my usual shop sweeping day--it was supposed to snow all day.
this is a good day to end part one and get this posted pronto. riding everyday can be a challenge in new hampshire's april. going outside to play! is my 'way' to stay happy.
